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Telling your family you’re pregnant can be a hard thing to do. Should you be blunt? Should you drop hints? Should you keep mum until you’re showing? Or…should you make it fun? We chose to make it fun! I found this cool fetus/food comparison chart and decided to use it to break the ice about the baby growing in my belly. We can discuss how creepy it is to compare babies to food another time for now just watch the video and see how the two little ones reacted.

So yes, it’s official, I’m pregnant. That means you’re probably going to hear the story about how I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant, how karma kicked me in the ass for turning into an anti-baby Mom, and there are bound to be many more baby related posts, products, and projects to be discussed. You’ve been warned. - Erin

This summer our yard has been turned into a construction zone (we’re adding on to our house) so the kids and I haven’t spent half the time outside that we normally would have. Instead, we’ve been inside and that’s just something my borderline ADD children just can’t stand. You can only play Operation and Hide and Seek so many times before the “I’m bored” mantra kicks in. Thank goodness for Pinterest. A while back I found this pin for DIY floam, I wouldn’t usually tackle a potentially messing project like this but when I saw there were only two ingredients on the list of supplies I knew we’d have to give it a go. Here’s a few photos of the fun we had!

Next Friday is the Summer Solstice, aka the longest day of the year, so being the self-respecting homeschooler that I am, I decided to turn this into a learning opportunity by making our own sundials. (Well, actually I had another project planned that went totally awry but ended in a good place. You can read about it at Creative Cynchronicity today!) –Erin

I’m normally the type of person who thrives under pressure. I love having a million things on my to-do list, it gets me going. Right now, I only have about 999,999 boxes to check off so I haven’t quite reached that magic motivational moment. Instead I’m slacking, bumming, watching too much Bones, Castle, NCIS, and Mentalist, and playing many board games with the kids. Alas, deadlines are fast approaching ( Um, aren't I supposed to be planning a ROYO for this year’s BlogHer?) and I’ve come to the realization that I MUST get motivated. Here are 5 quick tips to motivate. They’re not scientifically proven but hey, they got me to get moving (a little bit) this week!

1. What Would Martha Do? I realize it’s probably horrible to compare yourself to others but…it works. Pick a person, any person, and think to yourself, “Would ______ still be bra-less at 9 o’clock in the morning.”

2. Play Pretend. I do believe the quickest thing to shake off a bad mood is a smile, even if you’re faking it. So look at your to-do list, pick something, and then pretend that wild horses couldn't drag you from getting it done. I can’t wait to tackle that giant pile of laundry!

3. Just Give Up. When you’re not checking into an office and the only person you answer to (most days) is yourself it’s hard to not just give up. So do it…give up. Or see #2 and pretend to give up, how do you feel? Do you feel like a two-pack a day smoker going cold turkey? Well remember, you don’t have to give up but if you don’t that means you need to get off the couch and DO SOMETHING ALREADY!

4. MOVE. Sometimes it really is all you need. Get your body moving. Weeding works wonders for me.

5. Think of Your End Goal. Let’s face it, we’re not idiots but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to look at the bottom line. The garden won’t grow if you don’t plant it, the yarn will not crochet itself, and you’ll never write a book if you put off writing a 400 word blog post.

After spending so much of their time with me you’d think my kids would want a break, but the fact of the matter is, I’ve heard “play with me” at least 15 times a day since we’ve finished our school lessons. So that’s why I’m honored to be a contributor to the 100 Days of Play Blog Hop hosted by Rachel of SunScholars and Maggy from Life at the Zoo. Despite the millions of toys and gadgets to occupy our kids nothing holds a candle to simply playing.

String, or yarn, is something we all have on hand and when I was younger I remember playing string games with friends at school. I always thought it was both challenging and fun and really wanted my kids to give it a try. Mom’s Minivan had the best tutorials I could find that went slowly enough for us to follow along. Witch’s Broomstick is definitely where I would start. Over the course of a couple of days both my six and seven year old were about to master it.